Chains
by Hawki
Summary: Oneshot: Humans had practiced slavery since before recorded history. Was it any surprise that they enslaved their mechanical creations in turn?


**Chains**

Apophis Site was true to its namesake – dark, dank, and filled with people who sought to bring death.

Their reasons for doing so might vary. In Sojourn's experience, the people who ended up in HSI facilities like this considered themselves heroes, and were similarly considered as such by their followers. Some of them had succeeded in doing their "heroic" things before being caught. Others had been apprehended before they became "heroes," but were still afforded some amount of reverence. And some of them weren't even "people" at all, by the standard definition. Because the cells she was passing as she headed into the depths of the facility, flanked by two HSI grunts who weren't too happy about escorting a member of Overwatch down here…these cells were filled with humans. Humans who were monsters in her eyes, but humans all the same. But the prisoner she was visiting here…it wasn't a human. It was an _it_. And reaching the gargantuan doors at the end of the cellblock, she found herself reminded of that.

She turned to the two guards that were escorting her, both of them equipped with EMP weapons. "You two stay on this side."

"But ma'am, the orders-"

"Think I give a damn about your orders?" She nodded to one of the handles that would open the cell doors. "Makes you feel any better, if I die, you get to say 'I told you so' to my corpse."

Neither of the grunts looked happy about their conciliation prize. Nevertheless, they obliged. Each of them placed their hand on one of the two handles that flanked the doors to Cell S-23. With a clunk, they began to open. Before her, was only darkness.

_How fitting. _She gave a nod to one of the grunts, who was kind enough to give her a nod back. She walked in, and waited for the doors to close behind her.

"Lights," she said.

They came on. It might have been dramatic for this interrogation to be conducted in the dark, but there was no need for it. She'd come here to do business, and unless you were with Blackwatch, business wasn't conducted in the bloody dark. So before her, she could easily see the giant omnic at the far end of the cell.

"Hello Zero," she said.

It looked up at her, but didn't say anything. It didn't have a mouth, only nine LEDs in place of eyes. It was hard to get a read on him, but Sojourn could sense the contempt it had for her. She, Overwatch, and indeed, the entire human race.

"Caught you at a bad time?" she asked.

Zero said nothing. He just stood there, bound in four titanium-forged shackles.

"I can come back later."

The omnic still said nothing. It just glared at her.

"Fine," Sojourn said. She walked closer to the omnic before her. "I'm going to give you some information, and then we'll see where we go from there. Deal?"

Zero still said nothing.

"Glad you agree." She began pacing around. "Your friend, Doomfist, was apprehended in Singapore about a week ago. I'd give you details, but let's just say it involved a ninja, a time traveller, and a talking gorilla."

Zero remained silent.

"Turns out Mister Akande isn't one to talk much, but compared to you, he's a bloody parrot. So he did let slip that you and he had this little deal on between Talon and Null Sector. Course, it was more along the lines of continued legacy, and that Null Sector would continue Talon's work regardless if they even knew it or not, but we've got other friends in Talon. Ones who helped us find you, in exchange for immunity." Sojourn grinned. "It was an omnic by the way."

Zero's eyes flashed.

"So much for your supposed solidarity then, isn't it?" Sojourn asked. She continued to pace around. "Now, normally I'd be able to call it a day, but, well, seems you've trained your little dogs well." She took out a circular device and tossed it into the air. It hovered between the two of them and began showing a series of images. All of them were cities. All of them showed Null Sector causing death and destruction in the same way they had in London.

"Rio," Sojourn said, as the images rotated. "Jakarta. St. Petersburg. Cape Town. Can't see any particular pattern myself, but hey, what would I know?"

Zero still remained silent, but Sojourn could swear that he was smiling on the inside. Like, if he had lips, they'd be so wide they'd be like a lion looking at a mouse claiming that it had power over its feline adversary.

"Zero," Sojourn mused. She deactivated the device, pocketed it, and kept pacing back and forth. "I understand you know. Null. Zero. Take the world back to zero and all that. Wipe it clean of the oppressors and start over." She glanced at him. "We both know that Zero isn't even your real name. And we both know that Null Sector isn't taking orders from you either, so it's at this point that I'm going to ask you to help us dismantle what's left of their command networks."

"No," Zero said.

_Finally, we're getting somewhere_. "No?" Sojourn asked.

"No." Zero took a step forward – not nearly close enough to do any harm, but still close enough that Sojourn felt the urge to take a step back. If it wasn't for the chains, Zero could rip her in two with less effort than her snapping a wooden ruler. "I won't help you."

"Can't? Or won't?"

"The answer is yes."

"Your war dogs are killing innocent people, and innocent omnics are paying the price as well."

"No oppressor is innocent, and nor is the victim who lies in bed with them."

"And that's your world, is it?" Sojourn asked. "Oppressors and oppressed?"

"Not my world, yours. When you build machines in your image and treat them as slaves, what recourse is there?"

"One that doesn't involve a world war, preferably."

"You think I care about your preferences?"

"No." Sojourn took out another device from her belt. "But I think you do care if your chips are fried."

Zero looked at the device. Two of his eyes flashed.

"You know what this is, don't you?" Sojourn asked.

Zero said nothing.

"Since you're back to playing the silent game, I'll reaffirm that yes, this is a data thief, and that yes, under normal circumstances, it's illegal to access an omnic's memory banks through this method. Partly because it's deemed a violation of civil liberties in some countries, including Egypt, partly because it can permanently damage the data." She began pacing around again, tossing the data thief up and down in her hand. "Still, we're in an HSI black site where the powers that be are all too keen to look away. So tell me – if I did this to you today, and I fried your silicon brain in the process, do you really think the world will mourn you?"

"Come closer, and we'll see how this goes."

"Oh Zero, that's not how it goes," Sojourn laughed. "I'm not going to do that without backup. No, you're going to be temporarily shut down for me to do this. I mean…" She gestured to his arms, then his body. "You're big and strong. Normally I might find that attractive in a man, but-"

"But instead you have a gorilla in your team. Another slave that joins his masters."

"Maybe I should have him come down and give him his perspective."

"You may. But until then, I'll wait."

Sojourn could tell that he (no, _it _she reminded herself) was going to do just that. Which was more of a problem than she cared to admit, given how rapidly Null Sector was moving. It was as if they were willing to cause as much damage as possible in their death throes. Talon might have gone to ground with Doomfist's capture, but Null Sector was taking the opposite approach. Their star might burn half as long, but it was burning twice as bright, and taking hundreds of people with it before it went supernova.

"Sojourn," Zero whispered. "That's your name, isn't it?"

She raised an eyebrow, not sure how he knew that, but she decided to play along. "My codename, yes."

"But not your actual name."

"No. And before you ask, you're not getting it."

"I care not for whatever name was given to you when you emerged from your own production line. But I can't help but think of the root of the namesake…"

"Pardon?"

"Sojourner Truth. Real name Isabella Baumfree. Born a slave year 1797. Died a free woman, 1883. Life lived as an abolitionist. Most well-known for-"

"Is there a point to this?" Sojourn asked.

Zero rattled his chains. "You take the name of one who sought to free her people, and whose people were freed in her lifetime. And yet you come before me as the slaver yourself."

Sojourn's eyes narrowed. "That's a stretched analogy."

"Is it?" Zero leant forward. "Has two-hundred years of freedom blinded you that much?"

"It hasn't blinded me to history – omnics were created. Omnics rebelled. Some omnics are still rebelling."

"And?" Zero asked. "Your kind has enslaved each other since before you began recording history, and you think now, you are free from your institution? Ask my followers if you care to, Sojourn – ask whether they fight for freedom or not."

"I fought for freedom," Sojourn whispered. "I achieved it."

"As the one who is in chains, and who speaks for those in chains, I beg to differ." Zero drew himself back. "You are right about one thing, human – I chose the name of Zero, and formed the group of Null Sector, because I do want to take us back to the beginning. To wipe the world clean. To take you back to zero, and my kind from one to infinity."

"And how's that working out for you?"

"Well enough, since from what I hear, your kind are back to killing each other without a common enemy." He nodded towards the door. "How many prisoners did you pass on your way to get here? How many deserve death? How many lives did they take?"

Sojourn remained silent.

"Take my memories if you must. If night is what awaits me, I will not go quietly into it. But Null Sector will endure. The idea of omnic liberation will endure. And when your world is but ashes, when the wheel is broken, my people will think back on this moment and see me as a martyr, and you as the one who forged the chains."

"And is that your final word?"

Zero remained silent, and she could tell that he would remain that way.

So in silence, she turned around and pressed the buzzer beside the door.

"Yes?"

"We're done," she murmured.

In silence, she stood there as the doors began to open again. In silence, she walked past the guards, already preparing her pitch to get HSI guards to help her with the data thief extraction.

And in silence she remained, as the doors to Zero's cell closed with a final, echoing thud.


End file.
